Hi all, looking for some home assistant/mqtt help.
I’m not too familiar with MQTT, however I am trying to connect a Tasmota Switch to the HEMS. One complication is that I want the switch connected to my home Wifi, so it can also be connected to Smartthings. Is it possible to be connected to a standard network and connect to the MQTT on the HEMS?
Many thanks
Hi @Oscar_Scott, thanks for the great question. I will flag this for @ben, @matt and @peter who have more experience working on linking smart devices to the HEMS, and hopefully they will be able to get back to you with an answer (or at least some tips). I hope that everything is going well for you with the PowerShaper project.
The HEMS should be connected to your home network. If you can determine the IP you will find the MQTT broker on the usual port.
Once connected tasmota should work out the box, you should be able to find it in list of integrations. Let us know how you get on.
Looks like the Tasmota integration was released in Home Assistant version 0.117 - https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/tasmota/
We are still running a few versions behind on 0.115 - I will look into bumping the version this week.
The HEMS and the Tasmota Device are both connected to my home network - I put the IP address of the HEMS into the MQTT broker field on the Tasmota Device, but it didn’t appear in Home Assistant - Unfortunately I am not well versed in how MQTT really works, so don’t know what to do beyond that. Of course, if as Peter mentions below, if the HEMS updates to support tasmota directly as a device, all this can be bypassed 
Ah whoops sorry as Peter said we need to update for tasmota. It maybe that the MQTT messages are going onto broker even if not showing up in HA in which case you could use them in automations as you can trigger on mqtt messages. But might be better to wait for the update.
@Oscar_Scott Whilst I was on your HEMS for EV charger , I saw that data is coming in from the tasmota devices on topic ‘tele/Switch/STATE’ . You could use this as trigger inside HA.
@Oscar_Scott - your HEMS has been updated to Home Assistant version 0.117 so you should be able to see the Tasmota integration now.
Thanks all, got it added, but can’t do anything with it. I think I need to set option19 to 0, but can’t edit any configuration yaml files, guessing this is due to the type of HA we have on the HEMS?
I think that instruction is something you need to do on your Tasmota device rather than on HA.
Thanks, still quite new to this, been a Smartthings user until now!
So Set option19 to 1, and the device appeared as an MQTT device, but not under the Tasmota integration?
Doesn’t matter either way, as it is now in HA, while also working in Smartthings, so best of both worlds! Thanks for all the help everyone
As yet, I hardly understand what MQTT device and an Tasmota integration are - still learning - perhaps a webinar can be run on this? @ben
But, I have two devices that I would like to get integrated into my HEMS.
One is the Tapo P100 smart plug - I have 8 of them (great for Christmas lights) - but I’m also using them to switch on and off low energy electric heaters of various types that I am experimenting with. The Tapo devices are so easy to set-up!! And are controlled via an App on my Smart phone.
The second device is a “so-called” low energy “intelligent” electric panel heater connected to wifi (which is difficult to set-up) and then to an App on my smart phone via the cloud, but responds slowly.
I want to eventually get them to respond to cheap electricity using Octopus Agile - using the card that is currently being set up by @peter in Home Assistant.
Anyone have any thoughts on how this could be done?
Should I be asking for some sort of API from the supplier manufacturer of the devices. Or what other questions should I be asking. I know the MD of the manufacturer of the “intelligent” electric panel heater - so could ask their software guys - if I know what questions to ask???
The Tapo devices don’t seem integrate with Home Assistant. In this case there isn’t much that we as Carbon Coop developers can do. Similarly there isn’t much that the Home Assistant developers can do either, as TP link don’t provide the api to them. There has been quite a bit of discussion about TP-link devices on the Home Assistant forums recently - you may find something interesting there - https://community.home-assistant.io
More and more devices are working with Home Assistant, but some are still not allowing easy access. I don’t have enough experience with any smart plug to recommend one.
Shelly are the only company that I am familiar enough with to recommend - but they don’t seem to have a UK style smart plug. I have used the Shelly PM and Shelly 1 successfully with Home Assistant, but you need to install them and may need an electrician to help.
For the electric panel heater - just ask if it works with Home Assistant. Hopefully they will be familiar with the system (they really should be!) and can help you out.
If they don’t already have an integration, but do have an open API, they should be able to build a Home Assistant integration without too much trouble.
In terms of smart plugs that work with home assistant, anything that works with the smartlife or Tuya app will work, such as teckin branded plugs like these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7BH6N8/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MnS.Fb4S3YKJ7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
You just need to add the tuya integration to Home assistant.
There are a few devices that you can add to home assistant directly (with tasmota firmware), but I would avoid those if you want to control them when you are away from home, as you cannot access the HEMS while away from home (unless you pay for the cloud subscription)
Thanks @peter & @Oscar_Scott - I’m going to get the teckin plugs you suggested.
@peter Is the Shelly PM or Shelly 1 - what is installed in the Relay Unit that I have been given as part of the Powershaper project to control my Immersion Unit?
Would it be a Shelly device that I would need to be able to monitor and save data for my two Solar PV systems. Or is there another solution? Both have SMA inverters.
The Shelly device that is in the relay unit is the Shelly EM - we use this because the immersion load is a large one and we want to make sure the relay contactor has high enough capacity for all our installs.
Another Shelly EM would be ideal to monitor your Solar PV - https://shelly.cloud/products/shelly-em-smart-home-automation-device/
There are loads of reviews of it on youtube - you might find something similar to your intended use case.